RE: [xmca] Request for selection activity

Helen,

A simple question to ask each applicant is what there goal is by
undertaking this program. The more concrete and personal the answer the
better.

Louise

-----Original Message-----
From: Helena Harlow Worthen [mailto:hworthen@ad.uiuc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, 26 June 2007 08:41 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity
Subject: [xmca] Request for selection activity

Hello, xmca --

I suspect that someone on this list might be able to answer this
question.

I am working with a group of people here in Chicago that has to select
36 students to enter a high-powered pre-apprenticeship training program.

The 36 students have to come from targeted disadvantaged groups:
minority, women, low-income, etc. They will probably be mostly African
American, mostly men.

The pre-apprenticeship program is grant-funded from the State of
Illinois, the outcome of some serious politicking. It is a full-day 5
days a week 11-week program where the students will get paid $300 a
week, get bus passes, childcare, tools and safety equipment, and when
they graduate they'll get a union card and a very minor hoop to jump
through (a math test, for which they will get preparation assistance)
before getting into the full four-year Carpenters' Apprenticeship
Program. This is an expensive program: it costs about $1,000 per week
per student. The idea is that it is designed to address ALL the barriers
to minority entry into the building trades. It's got a lot of math and
hands-on carpentry and physical training in it.

Since the first class starts in September, we have a very short time to
recruit and select the students. We need an effective way to distinguish
between the ones that are going to make it and the ones that are going
to drop out or get dropped. Drug testing is a given; we have to do drug
testing at the beginning and randomly throughout the program. We figure
that drug testing will eliminate half the applicants. So it's the other
things I have to focus on. It's not academics, either -- the teachers
in this program take the attitude that as long as someone is showing
progress, no matter how slow, they stay in the program. What we're
looking for is people who can show commitment, act responsibly, and
build trust with the people they're working with.

So here is my question: Does anyone know an activity that measures how
well someone learns in a group? I imagine that it would be some kind of
group activity with a slowly rising challenge built into it.

Any ideas or references?

Thank you --

Helena Worthen
hworthen@uiuc.edu
312-996-8733
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Received on Mon Jun 25 19:15 PDT 2007